Also:

This just in from Jim Willis. You know him as the author of Pieces of My Heart and perhaps the world’s most well-known pet essay, “How could You.” A lot of other rescuers and companion animals know him as a fellow rescuer in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Jim just sent this to us.

[Please cross-post, distribute, and act on this immediately.]

Shelter To Kill Dogs

Instead of finding temporary quarters for the animals, Clayton County Animal Shelter will TOMORROW, Saturday, May 13, murder over 50 dogs while sealant is applied to half the shelter floor. Reportedly, all the cats will be killed when the process is repeated in two weeks.

(Note – some urgent messages distributed by e-mail from different sources wrongly identified the shelter as the Clayton County Humane Society, which is a no-kill facility, and some wrong contact information was given. The contact information in the below news article is correct. One message suggested contacting Captain Gibson, 770-477-3600, and said he is willing to release animals to rescuers. Also, the animals were granted a one-day extension since earlier messages were distributed.)

To save dogs, some must be killed, Clayton says
By SANDRA ECKSTEIN ( seckstein@ajc.com )
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/12/06

There’s a problem at the Clayton County Animal Shelter.

Workers need to apply sealant to the floors to cut down on incidents of parvo, a dangerous dog disease. But they say there are too many dogs there to do the work. So the shelter plans to euthanize 20 dogs this weekend to clear space.

“It’s so sad, they just don’t care,” said Corinne Birely, who runs K9 Angels, a dog rescue group.

Birely didn’t find out about the plan until Thursday, and said that doesn’t give her or others enough time to save the dogs. The dogs were to be euthanized today, but Assistant Police Chief Jeff Turner ordered all dogs held until Saturday morning.
“I would love it if people or rescue groups could come in and adopt them,” said Turner, whose department oversees the shelter. “But if they don’t, we have no choice.”
The county will apply sealant to half the shelter while putting its dogs in the other half, then repeat the process, Turner said. But half of the shelter isn’t big enough for all of the dogs.

About 30 dogs were already scheduled to be put down this weekend. Now, 20 more are to be euthanized. And any animals turned in for the next 10 to 12 days will be killed, too, because there’s no room, Turner said.

The shelter will be open today from 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday 8:15 a.m. to 4 p.m. The shelter is at 1396 Government Circle, Jonesboro. For information, call 770-477-3509.
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